Citizens of the state of Virginia are legally allowed to carry concealed handguns so long as they are at least 21 years old and a judge has decided that they do not have a history of violence or irresponsibility. Aside from having their right-to-carry explicitly granted in the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, no one can dispute that Virginians use their firearms in numerous instances of self-defense and violent crime prevention each year. On the Grounds of our University, however, this individual right is blatantly denied by University regulations.
The undergraduate record states that all firearms are prohibited on Grounds "without the expressed written permission of University police." This unconstitutional disregard for personal liberty is tolerated daily by a community of intellectuals, many of whom dare to call themselves liberals, and all of whom claim to value freedom.
There is no reason that students and professors should not be able to take the Bill of Rights with them on their way to class. Their civil liberty depends on their right to bear arms, and their personal safety may, too.
People who support a concealed weapons ban seem to operate under an odd misconception. Such a ban unfortunately does not stop people from carrying handguns, as handgun control proponents dream. It only stops law-abiding people from doing so. For better or worse, we live in a nation where there are more guns than people, and if a criminal wants to shoot someone, no law is going to stop him. This is not a particularly pleasant fact. But getting one million moms to march on Washington isn't going to change it.
To recap: there are millions of guns on the street, and there are millions of evil people out there who would love nothing more than to use them to rob, rape, or shoot someone. No law is going to change this.
In the world we live in, the danger of physical assault is a constant threat to University students and faculty, especially to females who travel alone after dark. Between 1999 and 2001, there were reports of 45 forcible sex offenses, 30 aggravated assaults and 16 burglaries on or around the University campus (www.virginia.edu/uvapolice). Although emergency telephones, the Escort Service and the University Police all contribute to the safety of individuals in the University community, it is evident that these measures simply can't and don't provide complete protection for everyone. Because of this, self-protection as upheld by the Second Amendment is necessarily among the most basic individual rights.
There is no reason that members of the University community should be denied this basic right. In a phone interview, Capt. Michael Coleman of the University Police confirmed that there currently are no permits for citizens to carry weapons on Grounds. When asked whether the University Police would grant such permission to individuals concerned with protecting themselves, he answered, "probably not."
According to Coleman, the motivation behind the University's firearms policy is primarily one of safety and security. Simply put, "handguns are dangerous." This echoes the rallying cries of gun control activists who love to yell about how trusting people to carry concealed weapons is much more likely to cause accidental deaths or heat-of-the-moment murders than anything else. But the facts suggest that such arguments rely on populist knee-jerk reactions rather than actual evidence.
As an example, University of Chicago criminologist John Lott reports that nearly 300,000 concealed handgun permits were issued in the state of Florida between Oct. 1, 1987 and Dec. 31, 1995. During this time period, only five violent crimes were committed using permitted handguns. This translates into less than 1/1000 of a percent misuse rate per year (www.womenshooters.com/wfn/lott.html).
In the same study, Lott shows that there is no evidence linking laws allowing the carrying of concealed weapons to increased accidental gun deaths, of which there are on average less than 30 per state per year (www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/493636.html).
Handgun bans don't stop murders or violent crimes, and they don't stop people from accidentally killing themselves and their friends. What such bans indisputably do accomplish, though, is the destruction of individual liberty and the disarmament of the law-abiding population. With the current University firearms policy, any deranged psychopath who wants to rape a student on her way back from class or walk into a lecture hall with a shotgun can rest assured that he will face no lethal resistance from his helpless victims. Deterrence is seriously crippled when criminals know that their targets are unarmed, and every member of the University community suffers as a result.
The Second Amendment exists and American citizens are free to carry concealed handguns for a reason. There is nothing about the community of trust that makes the people inside of it too untrustworthy to retain their Second Amendment rights. It makes no sense that a 21 year old should have the freedom to carry a pistol on the Corner but not on the Lawn. There can be absolutely no justification for this dichotomy of liberty that our University currently upholds.
If administrators do not think their students and faculty are worthy of the Bill of Rights, let them admit it. If they have determined what is best for the good of society, and they are willing to sacrifice individual rights to achieve it, let them say so. They would then openly share in the cozy company of Hitler and Stalin. Otherwise, they should show our civil liberty the respect that it deserves, and give us the full range of rights that the Constitution guarantees.
(Anthony Dick is a Cavalier Daily associate editor. He can be reached at adick@cavalierdaily.com.)
Read More
PATEL: Personal development courses support students beyond the gradebook
By Heer Patel | YesterdayThe University must rethink its approach to education beyond traditional major-specific requirements and mandate personal development courses.
EDITORIAL: Commercialization threatens U.Va.’s educational mission
By Editorial Board | 2 days agoAfter all, measuring the University’s worth in terms of accrued capital, operational efficiency and numerical rankings molds this space into just another cookie-cutter institution.
YOUNIS: Why every U.Va. student should say yes to English
By Ayat Younis | 6 days agoEvery student at the University, regardless of their primary field of study, can professionally and academically benefit from engaging with the English department.
